Birth, death and morality

Funny how articles about "unwed women" are never properly focused on the role of a mother and the need for the innocent child to have the benefit of a two parent home. That's what struck me as I read the recent media coverage about the latest National Center for Health Statistics numbers.

The claim is that 35 percent of all births (1.4 million babies) were "out of wedlock." The further claim is that teen births are down overall. And the Director of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy is practically euphoric about the "success" such a number presents to the public.

But wait a minute. I think the number crunchers are either ignoring, avoiding or downright misrepresenting the facts.

Teen "live births" are down because more teens use abortive birth control methods; more teens are suffering from sexually transmitted diseases, and more teens are obtaining surgical abortions very early in their pregnancies. And in those cases where abortion has occurred, we will someday deal with mothers who realize that the baby they killed is never going to be a happy memory in their life.

The birth rate outside of wedlock is up because more unwed women accept as fact the practice of sex outside of marriage and the lie that birth control will prevent abortion. Nobody ever tells them that promiscuity is morally wrong and physically dangerous. Nobody ever warns them that while using birth control they can not only become a tomb for a dead baby but a receptacle for any number of incurable sexually transmitted diseases. And so when they do become pregnant and choose to carry their baby to term, they are doing so in the context of a lifestyle that is unquestionably problematic.

Of course we are grateful that each of them chose life; but oh how we wish that each of them had learned the value of purity, chastity and fidelity within marriage.

The good news is that more moms are choosing life for their babies, even though they are not married. The bad news is that family life is decaying and far too few are speaking about the reasons why.